Christopher Logue, Homer revisited – Liberation

2023-04-17 10:07:00

Every week, a look at the poetic news. This Monday, the translation of the modernized version of an episode of the “Iliad”, “Music of war”, by the English poet of the British Poetry Revival who died in 2011.

When reading, aloud or in your head, you immediately hear the din of shields clashing, javelins cleaving the air, swords slicing, spears stinging, limbs fly, drums, tanks, screams, rage, rattles, chaos, in short, the small “Music of War” and its onomatopoeia («ho hisse», «ahou», «rha»etc.), which gives its title to the long poem by Christophe Logue fomented between 1959 and 1981. Either a modernized version of an episode ofIliad of Homer – the death of Patroclus, the lover of Achilles, who brings harmony back to the Greek camp – which reaches us today in French thanks to the Tusitala editions and its translator Charles Recoursé and that the British poet, who died in 2011, established from five previous English translations.

The cadenced language of Logue, which brings to the ancient story several thousand years old some contemporary notes (the anachronistic references to an airplane or a can), nevertheless amplifies its epic breath and universal scope. Example with the following verses: “And the Greeks were pushing back the Trojans little by little. / They were close; /Ever closer; thighs between thighs; twisted iron masks ‚ / glued / Like a kiss. And that’s without counting a concern to show through clear images, with a sense of dramaturgy specific to this representative of the British poetry revival – literary movement of the 60s and 70s –, human madness (blindness, greed, vanity, barbarism, etc.) in what is sometimes most beautiful or tragic. It is therefore not surprising that his text still inspires the new generation, like Kae Tempest who also delivered his version in music or the editor and writer Max Porter who signs the playful preface.

The extract

Hector stands in the center of this circle;

Squatting on the toes; knees apart, stable; palms up;

Tabby white fingers; open arms.

And his spirit, strengthened by his triple armor

(God, the sacred metal, his men),

Turns light, turns bright, brightens to death.

And as the voices of men mingle above the Prince,

He rocks from one toe to the other; and as they hit the ground,

One foot first, then the second

Leave the sand; and as they bow and begin

A round in chased steps following the course of the sun,

Although Hector remains bent over himself,

He adds his voice to theirs and starts spinning

In the opposite direction of men, and takes off, twirls,

And becomes in their eyes a source, a star,

A star whose strength is theirs, leaping –

Spread his body in the air, and in the air

Draws Achilles’ sword and makes it sing…

music of war by Christopher Logue, translated from English by Charles Recoursé, unpublished preface by Max Porter. Tusitala, 110 pages, €16.